It may not have been the very next day, but the grizzly bear came back.
On Sunday, July 27, Squamish resident Brain Aikens was driving home from his cabin above the Squamish Valley when he spotted a very large bear lumbering down the road toward Squamish.
“It was five plus feet at the shoulder,” he said, pointing to pictures his friend took of the grizzly. “It is hard to see the scale of it, but it took up half the road.”
The bear’s features — its snout and a hump on its back — were those associated with grizzles. Aiken’s friend jumped out of the car to take photos. Aiken was so concerned about his friend’s safety and focused on the grizzly that his nice camera with a telephoto lens remained in the back seat.
“How often do you encounter a grizzly with your nice zoom camera with you?” he lamented of not getting a shot.
The grizzly wasn’t scared off by the vehicles and was headed toward the Squamish Landfill — were six days earlier it was trapped and relocated.
Conservation officers spotted the bear at the dump Monday, July 28, Sgt. Peter Busink, of the Conservation Officer Service, told the Squamish Chief. They tranquilized the male grizzly that weighed approximately 550 pounds. The bear was scheduled to be relocated to a more remote location on Tuesday, July 29, Busink said, noting conservation officers are not releasing the whereabouts to protect the grizzly.
“Grizzly bears have a much larger home range than black bears do,” he said, adding black bears’ home range is usually around 20 kilometres.
Throughout his career as a conservation officer in Squamish, Busink said he’s never seen a grizzly bear return to a location after its been relocated. It’s definitely concerning that the grizzly headed for the landfill six days after it was initially dropped off in the wilderness, he said.
A tracking collar was placed on the bear. Officials estimate the grizzly is between five to 10 years old.
“Grizzly bears live to be quite old,” Busink said.
The grizzly bear’s relocation marks the happy ending Aikens was hoping for. The grizzly’s return to Squamish is a reminder that residents need to be better custodians of their garbage, he added.
